Adventurenet.net

Am I bad at driving in the mountains? Yes. Will I wimp out at a steep gravel road path? Absolutely. Does this on top of having no reception cause unnecessary delays? Probably. Do I drop a bunch of maps into a toilet? I’m just going to tell you about day 3 of this camping trip.

Monday September 15th, 2025

Good morning Shenandoah!

Let’s get started early because my next campsite does not take reservations.

I mean, it’s Monday so it should be fine, right?

I’m sure it will be fine.

A voice says “It wasn’t fine.”

I need to get this bear food out of my car that’s been sitting outside of a cooler since that dumb think cracked yesterday.

Note the dollar store rope holding my $40 tent to the ground.

Note the dollar store multi-tool that does a great job at cutting dollar store rope.

Here at Shenandoah there are little rental index card things paper clipped to a pole in front of the site.

There was a bit of a mix up when I first arrived because I think that I booked my two nights separately, so it looked like I had the location for one night followed by someone else with the exact same name.

We were able to get that sorted with no problems.

Since I’m check out before the rangers arrive, I’ll be leaving the card inside of a box by the ranger station and it couldn’t hurt to sneak in a little note as well.

“Thank you for the lovely adventure.”

While driving to the next location, I try to learn more about the car.

Why is every cruise control a little bit different than every other car I’ve driven?

This car has assisted steering, but if your grasp is a little bit too loose the car sets off a “Are you sleeping!?” alarm.

Still a neat feature.

The roads in the park are very thin and this has really made me feel a lot better about being to keep the car from falling off of a windy road in the mountains.

I’ll stick to my flat and straight roads, thank you very much.

Also, I’m getting a tire pressure alert…

That’s not great.

I hope the tire isn’t leaking air.

I pull over to gas stations until I find one with an air pump and attempt to fix the tire.

It does not fix the tire, it lets out more air and so I stop and wait for the next air pump to clear out.

It was being used by someone else for a while, so I think it has to be working.

It is. Thank goodness, because the tire was significantly low and I probably would have had to call for service.

Great news, the tire is not leaking, but it was a bit low on air from the rental place.

I now how the tires pumped up a bit fuller so that I’ll get better mileage as well.

Not bad.

Oh, one last thing to talk about in this area.

There are a handful of caves and I love going on cave tours, but these caves out here are too expensive.

At Luray Cavern a guided tour is $65.

At Inner Space Caverns north of Austin, Texas where I grew up, a guided tour is currently going for $23.

Oh! The car wirelessly charges my phone if I set it in the spot the right way.

Well that’s nice.

Volkswagen makes a nice mid-sized vehicle.

What it does not do is grant my phone extra reception in rural West Virginia.

I haven’t had reception in about 30 minutes now and I’m worried that even though I downloaded an offline map in advance that there will be difficulties in rerouting me if I try to close the map.

Future Levi here. This happened to me here and several other times on this trip. It feels like Google maps is worse now than it used to be.

But I am getting distracted.

LOOK AT THIS TINY POST OFFICE!

Every post office feels the same any more.

They all have that glossy brick building thing going on now.

They don’t come with electric fences like this one.

Or free food.

Feels weird to put a bible verse under it to me, but I do truly respect sharing food freely with anyone who might need it.

OHMAHAGAWWW! LOOK AT THE INSIDE OF THIS PLACE!

They still have coral reef postcard stamps from three years ago!

They no longer have those coral reef postcard stamps from three years ago.

Well…

I remember roughly which way I was going, but if I up the mountain I can probably get cell phone reception again to make my map work.

Success!

I find a small patch of reception, enough to get directions again.

Back down the mountain!

Oh no.

The campsite is down there on the left.

I don’t know if I can get the car back up if I go down there…

Um.

Yeah.

Not risking it.

I’ll go back to the reception spot and figure something out.

Might as well look around while I’m here.

I’m pretty sure I’m in national park land. New River Gorge, specifically.

This old display box has to be part of a national park, right?

Great news.

They have a pile of gravel.

It would be a shame…

If someone were to climb it and get a selfie!

Oops!

Also, check out this sick train bridge.

Seems like this might be a hangout spot.

Okay, so this is a national park.

At the reception spot I get directions to the visitor center.

I’ll ask about where to camp there.

Oh, but first another post office.

I’m mailing myself index cards that list my address as well as the time, date, and location that I am writing from.

I want to see what the postmarks look like.

Maybe collect various zip codes.

I’m trying it out.

There’s another little rural post office in the area.

I’ll mail out some postcards and an index card to myself.

Oh, but what is this that I spy?

Hate group Chick tracts?

“Small town Tomfuckery.” I say.

(I totally grabbed these offensive little bastards).

Back to the campsite hunting!

Let’s get a national park passport stamp and ask for advice.

What a lovely shop.

I spent a long time in here chatting with the rangers and taking notes on maps about the best places to stay.

I ended up with a handful of postcards, maps, and notes before heading back to the car to try out the suggested campsite.

Oh, I should use the restroom while I’m here. I’ll stop there, first.

Bad news.

I um.

Walked into a toilet that was pretty full, nasty, and unflushed.

I set down my stack of maps so that I could flush the toilet and knocked half of my maps with notes on them into the toilet.

I…

I flushed and fished out the wet maps and threw them away…

I did not take a picture of the nasty part of this story, but here’s an after picture of the items that did not fall into the toilet.

I’m too embarrassed to ask for new maps and take the notes again.

I got the gist of it.

Great rangers here, by the way.

Very helpful, very polite.

The main thing is that I know where I’m staying for the night.

Right about here.

This campsite has trains that go right by it!

And pipes surrounded by clover!

I don’t actually know if that’s clover, but I assure you that those are pipes.

I lost a lot of time today thanks to the lack of reception, but I’m here now and I’m set up.

What’s nearby?

The New River Gorge Bridge seems to be the main attraction.

Let’s go there.

I have chosen to go to the view of the bridge rather than on top of the bridge.

And there it is.

Y’know.

I don’t think this is for me.

Please enjoy what you enjoy, but I was way more hyped for that train bridge.

Am I missing something?

Maybe I need to know more about the history of bridges to fully appreciate this.

But first, I must eat and because I am exhausted and have not yet recouped my lost cooler food, I will have a nice meal in town.

I found a place that has nice pictures.

Mandabees in Oak Hill, WV.

This place is nice.

I told the server that I don’t eat pork or shellfish and that she should surprise me.

She relayed this message to the chef who made me a Sunday School which is a chicken salad sandwich with sweet potato fries and honey mustard.

I am told the owner of the building used to bring these with her to Sunday school and folks would tell her that she should start a restaurant and sell them.

She was successful.

I am now in the restaurant where she sells the Sunday school sandwich and it is delightful.

If you are ever in the area, please stop in for this wonderful treat.

Also there are painting classes here.

To heck with it.

I’m buying one!

Also, I should get another silly picture.

BACK TO ADVENTURES!

What’s this? Odd, West Virginia?

Don’t mind if I do.

I am told that Mothman lore in the area runs deep.

Back to the campsite where I have a grasshopper visitor.

It feels like I didn’t accomplish much today, but tomorrow is the big day.

The main stop on this trip is the reservation that I have for kayaking in and abandoned mine and I am very much looking forward to that.

Okay, technically the day after tomorrow is the big day.

Tomorrow I’ll be at the campsite nearest to the kayaking where I’ll sleep and then wake up the next day and immediately go kayaking for the first time in my life.

Should be amazing.

This is a good campsite.

Oh, and there was no issues finding a site.

The spots closest to the river filled up first, but I have no interest in swimming.

I’d rather have more space and quiet.

ZOMG!

They have a pile of gavel here, too!

I can’t climb it, though.

Too many witnesses. 👀

Tomorrow will be a big open day.

I need to check in at the first state campground that I’ll be using during this trip and then the rest of my day is open.

There’s a pizza place near the park that my therapist suggests, I’ll probably stop there.

There’s a natural bridge state park, that could be fun.

That pizza place opens at 7am.

That’s so early.

Great for me, though.

I am certainly an early riser when I’m camping.

Despite being very exciting, these are decision s for tomorrow Levi.

Got the tent fully set up.

I have plenty of water in the trunk.

No electricity, but my power bank is fully charged.

We’re set for a good night.

Also, I’m wearing this same shirt while typing this.

This is one of the new gear items I brought on this trip.

I hear from long distance hikers that cotton should absolutely not be worn on a long trek, so I’m dipping my toes in the water of camping clothing with this.

It’s a solid shirt.

I do not recall why I was hit with selfie mania on this night.

Perhaps it is the lack of a portable CPAP machine that keeps me breathing while I sleep.

Before it gets dark I should take a quick walk down to the river and see what it’s like over there.

Oh, this is very slow and calm waters.

I hear that other parts of this river are used for white water rafting.

This is very relaxing.

As I approach I catch a hammocker taking down his setup and walking down river.

I don’t spot any creatures in the water, and it’s getting dark, but I run into a couple who also came to take a last minute peek.

I chat with Dale and Mary from Michigan by the water for about 15 minutes.

A wonderful couple.

As the darkness sets in, the comics will be read.

I’m so glad that I brought these on this trip.

My brain is feeling more popcorny with algorithms, digital subscriptions, political divide, and artificial intelligence.

I’m trying to find my way back to physical media in small bites to earn back my focus and drive.

Comic books are great for this.

It’s reading, but it’s in digestible bite-sized pieces.

Plus they’re just a heck-of-a-lot-of-fun.

I’m really enjoying this run of Exceptional X-Men.

I have a few missing middle issues.

I may try to find some comic book shops on this trip to see if I can pick them up.

I’m almost caught up to the gap of missing issues.

I regret skipping a second shower at Shenandoah, there are not showers here.

It will have to wait until tomorrow.

Ahh.

Time to sleep.

Until I hear a lady at a neighboring campsite yell about catching someone masturbating.

I think she’s drunk and retelling a crude story.